In 1985, Jan Torsten Ahlstrand published a detailed monograph on the artist's life and work through 1920. An outstanding example of queer cultural history,
Ahlstrand's book has formed the foundation for later scholarship on the artist. Ahlstrand carefully analyzed the aesthetic and theoretical bases of GAN's
work. Moreover, he reconstructed the artist's personal life and established the link between his sexuality and his creativity.

In Scandinavia, GAN is now generally considered one of the most significant Swedish artists of the twentieth century because of his aesthetic innovations.
During the course of his career, he created highly original work in a variety styles, including a powerful synthesis of Expressionism, Futurism, and
Cubism; Dadaist inspired collage; and pure geometric abstraction, among others.

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GAN also merits international recognition as a bold pioneer in queer visual expression. Defying the predominant homophobia of his era, he created publicly
exhibited art that celebrated his love for other men and linked that love to an inspiring utopian vision of social progress.

A large number of significant twentieth-century European artists focused on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender themes, making such concerns crucial to the understanding of twentieth-century European art.

Despite the widespread homophobia in the Modernist movement, several of its practitioners were homosexual; some of them wrote openly about homosexuality, and the groundwork was laid for the gay liberation movement.

_____. "The Reception of the Early European Avant-Gardes in Sweden." A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries, 1900-1925.
Hubert van den Berg, ed. Avant-Garde Critical Studies, vol. 28. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012. 423-433.